Tag Archives: Grayson Allen

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Duke men's basketball matched a program record with four selections during the 2018 NBA Draft Thursday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, including two of the top seven picks and three first-round selections.

Freshman Marvin Bagley III went second overall to the Sacramento Kings, while classmate Wendell Carter, Jr. went seventh to the Chicago Bulls. Senior Grayson Allen joined Bagley and Carter in the first round as the 21st pick by the Utah Jazz, running the Blue Devils’ total to 44 all-time first-round picks – the third-best total in history.

Bagley and Carter coming off the board in the lottery now gives head coach Mike Krzyzewski 25 lottery selections – extending the record for most lottery picks for a school and coach. Duke has boasted a top-3 pick in each of the last five NBA Drafts, surpassing the record of four straight by UCLA between 1974 and 1977.

Rounding out the four Blue Devils in the Draft was freshmen Gary Trent, Jr., who was drafted by Sacramento in the second round with the 37th overall pick and traded to the Portland Trailblazers. Duke previously had four draft picks in 1986, 1999 and 2017.

The Blue Devils have had at least one player selected in 31 of 38 drafts under Krzyzewski. Coach K has tutored a total of 61 draft picks since taking over the Duke program in 1980, including a Draft-record 38 first-round selections.

The Blue Devils have produced 18 first-round picks in the last 10 seasons, including at least one in each of the last eight years. Thirteen of Duke’s last 15 picks, and 20 of the last 25, have come in the first round, including 13 lottery picks.

Coach K on Bagley:

“Marvin was as good as anyone in college basketball last season. A high double-double guy, and no one runs – as a big guy – any better. He’s shown he can put the ball on the floor, and he can shoot. He’s just going to get better. He’s a position-less big guy, which in today’s NBA is important.”

Coach K on Carter

“With Wendell, you have that double-double guy, who faced the basket for the first time once he got here to Duke. He can really shoot, and I liken him a lot to Al Horford – he’s taller, but he has a huge upside. He’s an incredible passer for any position, but especially for a big guy. He’s an easy kid to coach and fun to be around every day.”

Coach K on Grayson Allen:

“In Grayson, you have a 22-year-old mature player. His body of work is there. No player that I can think of has been scrutinized more than him, and has come through it on a huge upside. An almost 2,000-point scorer, an All-American, an Academic All-American, but he has shown he can score the ball. He’s one of the best shooters in the draft, but he can also be a combo – he’s an off-the-charts athlete. He fits in really well in today’s NBA.”

Coach K on Trent

“Gary is physically ready to play in the league, and he has a huge upside. He is a tremendous shooter. He can really compliment really good players, and he can be an asset to a team right away with his ability to score.”Duke in the Draft
• Duke has produced a total of 94 NBA Draft picks since 1952.
• Duke has had 61 draft picks under head coach Mike Krzyzewski (since 1981), fourth-most nationally over that time.
• The Blue Devils have had at least one player selected in 19 of the last 21 NBA Drafts, including 30 first-round picks.
• Duke has had at least one player taken in 31 of the 38 NBA Drafts in the Krzyzewski Era.
• Duke players have been selected by 29 of the 30 NBA teams all-time.
• The team to have drafted the most Blue Devils is Detroit (nine), followed by seven for Chicago, and six each for Golden State and Boston. Toronto remains the only team yet to draft a Duke player.

Duke in the First Round
• Duke’s 45 first-round selections are third most all-time, including 38 under Coach K.
• Coach K's 38 first-round picks are the most by a college coach in the history of the NBA Draft.

• Duke has produced a top-3 pick in five consecutive NBA Drafts to set a draft record. The previous record was held by UCLA (1974-77).
• Duke’s 25 NBA lottery picks – all coached by Coach K – are the most by both a college program and college coach.
• An NCAA-leading 20 lottery selections have come from Duke since 1999.
• In the Lottery Era (since 1985), Duke has produced 12 top-three picks; the next-closest total nationally is four (each by Georgetown, LSU, Ohio State, Kansas and Kentucky).
• Duke's 14 top-10 picks since 2000 are the most in the nation in that timeframe, leading Kentucky (12), Connecticut (8), Arizona (8) and Kansas (7).
• Duke has produced at least one first-round pick in each of the last eight years.

There is plenty of reason for Duke Basketball fans to tune into the NBA Draft which will be held at Barclays Center in New York tomorrow evening.

The draft will start at 7:00 with the Phoenix Suns on the board and it will not take long before we hear a Blue Devils name called.

In fact, five Duke Blue Devils are expected to go in the NBA Draft where the team is losing their entire starting lineup.

You may have seen in the news recently where Marvin Bagley III signed a deal with Puma. To do so, players have to have agents in place and in the case of Bagley, he has secured the services of Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management. Bagley is expected to be a big part of a Puma campaign to promote its brand. They recently signed his former high school teammate DeAndre Ayton while naming Jay-Z as president of Puma Basketball.

A player who is destined to go in the lottery with Bagley is WendellCarter Jr. Carter has signed with Mike Seigal of Impact Sports Management.

Four year Duke standout Grayson Allen has signed with Mitch Nathan of CAA Sports. He is in good hands in that he represents NBA standouts, Karl Anthony-Towns and Victor Oladipo.

Gary Trent Jr. has signed with Daniell Cantor of FAME. She is one of the most accomplished female agents who has worked closely with David Falk. She most recently represented Malcolm Brogdon who played at Virginia and won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award.

Trevon Duval has inked with Raymond Brothers of IAM Sports. Among his clients are Markelle Fultz who was last season's top overall pick.

If you follow the Blue Devil Nation twitter feed, you realize that Grayson Allen is drawing the attention of many NBA teams, Today, Allen worked out with the Boston Celtics and there is a video with his response below.

Allen was naturally questioned about Jayson Tatum who he played alongside one year of his Duke career --

“He’s incredible, man. When he first came into Duke in the summer, when we were playing small games - one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three - he would kill people,” said Allen. “Like, if he gets in space, and that jump shot starts going down, he’s taking shots you want him to take, but it’s going in.

Celtics director of player personnel Austin Ainge called Allen a “great shooter” who “scored a lot of big baskets.” He said the team is not worried about the concerns surrounding his character. Ainge said he spoke with Celtics forwards Jayson Tatum and Semi Ojeleye — who both overlapped with Allen — and the players had nothing but positive remarks. Ainge also spoke with former Duke basketball guard Nick Pagliuca (son of Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca).

Allen most recently is linked to the Golden State Warriors via the latest NBA mock draft. The four-year Duke player has also had good workouts with the Utah Jazz and others.

Blue Devil Nation Premium members can read what an NBA insider is saying about Allen as the draft approaches by joining during out two for one year membership special. The insider covers all four of the Duke players in the draft and the feedback he is getting at this time.

Former Duke standout Grayson Allen worked out for the Los Angeles Lakers today. He talks of his game, the workouts, Lakers and Brandon Ingram. Allen is just starting his workouts and has only worked out for the Lakers and New Jersey Nets to date.

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski as well as student-athletes Marvin Bagley and Grayson Allen. Questions for the student-athletes?

Grayson, what's the biggest difference between their zone and your zone?

GRAYSON ALLEN: A lot of times you'll see when the ball goes into the middle against them their center steps up. A lot of times there's two (indiscernible) stepping up to take the ball in the middle, whereas we try to keep our big to protect the rim and have another guy come to contest the shot in the middle or challenge the ball, try to make them uncomfortable then.

Does it help you offensively going up against the zone, the fact that you now play it?

MARVIN BAGLEY III: I mean, I don't think it really has anything to do with our offense. We've moved the ball pretty well lately. It's going around to everybody, everybody's touching it, everybody's involved in the game. So I think if we continue to do that then we can have great success throughout the rest of the tournament.

GRAYSON ALLEN: I think it might help a little bit, just because we know movements and positionings. But at the same time Syracuse's zone is different. For the majority of the year you go up to man-to-man teams. So you don't prepare; you don't have game preparation to go against the zone every day.

We have preparation to play a zone against everybody, obviously, but as far as trying to execute against the zone and the zone that's as long as Syracuse is, it's difficult to actually prepare for that.

Grayson, you were the 2015 championship team, obviously had a great senior leadership back with Cook. You being a senior on this team with so many freshmen like Marvin, have you tried to take on a leadership role and be a leader for those freshman?

GRAYSON ALLEN: Yeah, I'm the leader of the team right now, and as the captain that's what I'm trying to do, trying to prepare them, trying to lead them in the right direction. And at this point in the season it's really cool how we've come together. And the guys are listening to me out there on the court and in huddles and everything. And they're starting to speak up, too. And we're all listening to each other out there. And we've really come together as a team here.

Marvin, you and Wendell had a pretty good game against Syracuse back in February. How much adjustment do you expect to see Syracuse make against you guys?

MARVIN BAGLEY III: We're expecting to see a completely different team than we played last time. That's something that I've learned throughout the years -- teams that we watch on film, they play completely different when we actually get on the court. And it's kind of like we have to learn how to adjust. And we did a great job throughout the year.

But I think Syracuse is going to be a different team. Last game we both had pretty bad games as teams as a whole, but it should be a great game. And I'm excited to get out there and compete with my teammates and just try to continue to get wins.

Grayson, can you slap the floor while playing zone, and do you miss it?

GRAYSON ALLEN: Yeah, you can definitely slap the floor playing zone. Slapping the floor is all about intensity and getting a stop. I don't know if anyone's seen it yet or seen it in a zone yet. Definitely can, though. It more symbolizes getting a stop than it does man-to-man defense.

Grayson, there's been a lot of talk about just player compensation and the potential of college players getting paid. Where do you stand on the viability of that?

GRAYSON ALLEN: I'm here, so I've been pretty happy with my four years of college. It's been awesome. It would be really tough because you're changing something that's been in place for a long time. And so it sounds good. I'd love to receive some extra money. That would be awesome. But thankfully I'm not the one in charge trying to figure out exactly how to do that.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for coach Mike Krzyzewski?

COACH KRZYZEWSKI: We're excited to be here in Omaha. A great reception thus far; hopefully we get one tomorrow night too. But we're healthy, excited and playing very good basketball right now. Hopefully we can keep that going

Can playing the zone on defense help you offensively when you go up against another zone?

COACH KRZYZEWSKI: I think so. A little more familiarity. I think you respect it even more because you know a little bit more of the intricacies of playing it. And so when you see Syracuse play it, you have an appreciation for how well they do, the way they do their zone.

And some of the changes that they make as the year goes along, as their players improve -- which Jim's players always improve -- but, yeah, I think it helps both teams, I think, understand that.

You kind of have been an up and down team from 3 this year --

COACH KRZYZEWSKI: I'm sorry, we've been an up and down?

From 3-point land this year, but last week you drained 20-plus 3s and had a high percentage. What was the key last weekend to get anything to go in from 3?

COACH KRZYZEWSKI: Our guys hit shots. I mean, I think offense is an up-and-down type of thing. But overall we've been outstanding -- we haven't been an up-and-down offensive team. We've been a good offensive team all year long.

And if you only depend on the 3, then you're going to be in trouble. But we've been a good rebounding team. And we have good inside players. So I think more balance, balance is the key to being a really good offensive team. And for the most part we've had that. Hopefully we'll be able to hit the 3tomorrow, but I'll be more concerned with just having balance.

There's been a lot of talk just about player compensation. Do you feel like the model that you guys have currently is the right model for college basketball or does it need changes or tweaks at all?

COACH KRZYZEWSKI: It's not my model that we guys have. We do what the guys tell us to do, okay? So, no, the model needs to be changed, especially in regards to what a kid and his family can do before they come to your institution because the school and the coaches have no control over that.

And I think it starts with that and a different definition of amateurism. And whatever that does, once they get there -- kids get a lot right now. In the last three to four years, I'm not sure how much research you've done on it, but if you would compare what kids get today as compared to four years ago, it's a dramatic improvement, dramatic -- not small, dramatic.

But, again, I'd like for them to take a look at what happens before you get 'em to make sure that the kid and his family are afforded the opportunity to max out like anyone else in our country what talent will give you.

I guess looking back at that meeting that you had with Syracuse back in February, how useful is the tape of that in preparing for this one?

COACH KRZYZEWSKI: Well, the game we had, we didn't meet with them, but we had a game with them. And I thought -- I didn't think either team played well. And sometimes that happens in a grueling conference schedule. Hopefully the other team isn't playing well and you're playing well. But I thought we were both a little bit run down during that time.

And so I don't think it's a good indicator. I think I heard Marvin mention something about it, that -- they're different and we are too. They're better. We're better. Marvin had been out for two weeks and he just came back that day. Brissett and Dolezaj are different players for them than they were on February 24th. We're both better teams right now.

Mike, you've been around Jim Boeheim, you've been around Jim for a lot of summers. I want your best Jim Boeheim impression?

COACH KRZYZEWSKI: Look, I'm not Billy Crystal here or whatever. Jim Boeheim to me is my best friend in coaching and one of the really great coaches in the history of our game. And what he did to spend 11 years as -- I call him my co-coach with US -- was terrific. And I could not have had a better guy. That's why I chose him and asked him three times to be that.

And so we have a bond that is very, very tight. And so do our families. So that's the difficult part about tomorrow. But the fact that we're both here, that's good, that's good. But I love Jim and his family and what he's done for us and for the United States.

Anything specific to the zone where it almost feels like he's kind of joked about you stealing something out of his playbook?

COACH KRZYZEWSKI: He doesn't have a playbook.

You're right about that.

COACH KRZYZEWSKI: No, he does not have a playbook, it's all right here (pointing to his head).

Since you've been through this more so than anybody, is there skill in going into this round to this weekend?

COACH KRZYZEWSKI: Some of it is luck. Some of it is luck and you're healthy, you've got a matchup that was more conducive to you than the other guy. And sometimes, just like for us, we're playing well. So we're playing our best basketball.

But the zone itself, I learned a lot from Jim but also from Mike Hopkins and Jeff Capel. With the U.S., you're with all these guys and you're not just watching tape of Uruguay or Puerto Rico or whatever, Argentina. You're there with Thibodeau, with Monty Williams, D'Antoni and McMillan and all these guys. And so you talk a lot about basketball.

And no one really has that opportunity. You don't do that. And so Jim and Mike were -- Mike Hopkins did an amazing job behind the scenes. So we learned a lot. We used it one time and we won a game in Madrid, against Spain, a big-time game. But we practiced it a little bit.

Two things, how difficult is it to coach against a good friend when you get in the NCAA Tournament, someone has to go home? And secondly how much do you enjoy being the youngest coach in the game tomorrow?

COACH KRZYZEWSKI: I like the second question better. A lot younger in every aspect. But you know what, we're both professionals. And for me, coaching against a former player who played for me or a good friend, I never look at the other sideline. It's Duke against Syracuse and he's going to go after us. We're going to go after him. And we'll be friends before and after and during.

But you wouldn't show respect for someone you loved and had respect for by not giving your best. And so I expect his best and I know he expects that from me.

What do you recall from traveling the back roads of Nebraska in 1981 and 1982, and Bill Jackman says hi?

COACH KRZYZEWSKI: Well, Bill is a great kid, and for us, we had to fly to Denver to get to Grant, Nebraska. We enjoyed it. They're great people and we're really good friends. And it's a time where he felt the necessity of getting back to Nebraska for family reasons. But we've maintained a great friendship.

I thought he was a fantastic player and even a better person. And he's proved to be a really good player, but he's really fulfilled the other part of it extremely well.

Michael Buckmire, walk-on, what have you seen from him and his role as a walk-on, and what does he bring to the team?

COACH KRZYZEWSKI: It's tough to get, without insulting our student body, the level of athlete that could be a walk-on on our team and Buck does that. Plus he's smart and he played in a really good league in Philadelphia. He's been terrific, better than I could have expected. His dad was a great soccer player at Duke. So the athleticism, I think, comes from that. But we're happy to have him.

COACH KRZYZEWSKI: Well, we -- I'm happy with my team, you know? You bring a young team in here, and I thought our guys really handled their first NCAA game very well against a team that has a championship pedigree. You know, Tim's program is one of the best in the northeast and the Iona name in basketball is huge.

And they have a lot of older guys. Obviously, they can put five guards out there, which was tough for our zone to cover for a while in the first half. In the second half we did a much better job of it.

But defensively, we did make them take tough threes and they didn't shoot their normal 40 percent or so from three-point range.

But I thought my guys played well, and proud of them, and we're going to now play against another championship caliber team in Rhode Island.

Q. Grayson, what did you think about how -- your young teammates handled the situation the first time?
GRAYSON ALLEN: I thought they did a great job, mostly because I thought they came out aggressive and confident. I don't think we were nervous or overanxious because of the tournament atmosphere, I thought. We came out very well. We scored the ball to start the game and played hard and had to make an adjustment on defense because of Iona's defense.

This was a game, if we didn't come out like that and didn't come out hard, we could have been down seven, eight points from the get-go because of how they scored the ball. Really proud overall how they came out and just attacked right from the start.

Q. Just a question for Trevon. Could you talk about your emotions going to your first NCAA Tournament game?
TREVON DUVAL: Definitely a little nervous because it's my first NCAA Tournament. Overall, I was just excited and I was ready to play.

Q. Grayson, when you went through your first experience in the NCAA Tournament, what can you really remember from that and just the feeling of doing it as a freshman when you have all of these teammates?
GRAYSON ALLEN: My first role was a little bit different than what I'm telling to these guys, because I was not playing as much. And so my first one, really, I look at my sophomore year in a lot of ways, because that was the first one that I was, you know, fully into playing 30-some minutes a game, you know, you're part of someone else's game plan, whereas my freshman year I wasn't, so, just really trying --

COACH KRZYZEWSKI: Really trying to think that you weren't.

GRAYSON ALLEN: So just really trying to tell these guys -- like prepare them for the atmosphere being inside of it, versus being on the outside of it. Where last year, they were watching the games in high school, during the day, and now you're in it. So it can be easy to get distracted by who is playing who, who is beating who, what's the score going on here.

But if you just focus on today, Duke versus Iona, if we were able to focus on that, we come out and play well. We first focus on Duke, not Rhode Island, not focus on anything else. Not get distracted about anything else, we'll be all right.

Q. Grayson and Trevon, I know you probably haven't seen much film on Rhode Island, we have a lot of senior guards, a lot of experienced guards. What's your first take on all of their guards and back Court?
GRAYSON ALLEN: They're very experienced and their guards are very tough. We played against them last year, and I remember that game, their guards were very tough. They go at you both offensively and defensively, and they're a very experienced team. They have a pretty good amount of guys back from that team that I played, so it will be a very tough match-up because of how experienced they are and because they are a team that wins.

Q. In the first half, is it a matter of getting behind the zone when they're getting those baskets?
COACH KRZYZEWSKI: First of all, they average 80 points a game, so you're not talking about a team that doesn't score. They have eight guys that have scored 20 or more points in a game, and some guys have scored 30. One guy scored 40.

So, when they put five guys out there -- and it's not a conventional way of doing it, they actually put five guys out on the perimeter, and you have to talk and move a lot. Overall, I thought we did a good job against it, we had -- brought a 15-point lead and we took a couple bad shots. And that hurt us more than our defense.

And -- but my staff, Jeff, made a really good suggestion at halftime, and we went with it in how to change the zone just a little bit, and that worked for us. But they can shoot the ball. And that's the scariest thing for us going into the game. Because if we're tight a little bit, they start shooting like they did, you know -- it's one game, you get a shooter's chance. That's what Chris Collins used to always say to me.

Q. You know I can't let you get out of here without a Hurley question?
COACH KRZYZEWSKI: Which one?

Q. Obviously you're close with the family. What do you think it means for Danny to have his father be watching him and father be watching his son --
COACH KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah. We played at Seton Hall the game before we were in the Kentucky game and brother against brother. No, I love -- look, I love their family. When Bob was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame, he asked me to present him and I did. It was an honor to do that.

Their family epitomizes the highest level of love for the game. And the father, you're talking -- one of the great coaches. It doesn't matter what level. That's why he's in the Hall of Fame. And his two sons have learned a lot, learned a lot. And Danny's team -- yeah, he's built a -- he hasn't built a team, he's built a program there. You know, that's the difference. That's what you want to do is build a program that develops teams year after year, and he's done that at Rhode Island.

Q. Just to follow up on your thoughts about your guys making their debut in the NCAA --
COACH KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah.

Q. -- what's the biggest part, what's the biggest adjustment you have to make?
COACH KRZYZEWSKI: Do you have children?

Q. No?
COACH KRZYZEWSKI: See, you're missing out on that. What happens when you're 18 and 19, and you go into a new experience. That's what we've had to go through the whole year, you know, the first road game, the first conference game, the -- you know, the first 10:00 game, you know, all of those things. So this is a first for them.

And whereas Iona, their program's been in the last three years, so this is just nerves. We didn't have it today, but because you're a human being, you can have it. You can get jittery, you can get a little bit tight. That's what happens to people. And our guys didn't do that today which I'm really pleased about.

Q. What was the first experience you had personally in any NCAA game in any way, shape, or form?
COACH KRZYZEWSKI: It was '84 --

Q. No.
COACH KRZYZEWSKI: '84, we got messed over, in Washington. They undercut Johnny Dawkins on a last-second lob and didn't call it and Detlef Schrempf and those guys beat us. It's pretty for me to remember that.

But also, it's an honor to coach any NCAA game. You know, they don't -- we've been fortunate we've been in a lot of them, but I don't take any of them for granted. They are beautiful in any way and getting a win in an NCAA game is fantastic.

Q. Mike, how valuable is it if Trevon can consistently hit from the perimeter like he did today?
COACH KRZYZEWSKI: No, it's crazy good. He's worked on it, and I was proud of him after he hit the first one that he was aggressive and taking the others, you know, like -- wasn't like, oh, I'm happy. And -- but overall, the biggest thing, until the second half, when we had a bigger lead, he and Grayson had 17 assists and five turnovers. And then they messed around with a couple balls.

It probably should have been like 17-3, but if they can give us the floor game like that, and then, you know, he -- it would be nice if he hits that many. Just so he's a threat, and he is. So, that was a big boost for us.

Q. Now I'm blanking. What makes you most worried about Rhode Island match-up wise, with such experienced guards?
COACH KRZYZEWSKI: You're going to answer my question. My answer. Now, I don't know if I asked the question or you did. Anyway, let me start over.

Rhode Island, we played them last year early, up at Mohegan Sun, and they were a tough-minded group. And that's what Danny has built there. And they have -- they can put four guards out there, too. They can handle and shoot and they value the ball and play defense. So, we'll have to beat a really good team to advance, but that's -- look. We're not unlike the other teams in the tournament. Everybody in the tournament is good, but they are experienced good. Okay? Thank you.